Review on properties of banana fiber reinforced polymer composites

Abstract The fast moving world is very much concerned about the environmental ecology and new regulations from government agencies. Due to this scientists and researchers are looking for biodegradable and renewable natural fiber reinforced composites as an alternate material. The fiber obtained from natural resources has indubitable benefits over the synthetic fibers such as low density, comparable strength, non-toxicity, low cost and minimum waste disposal problems. A lot of research has been done by researchers to explore the potential applications of natural fibers. But fibers such as banana, jute, bagasse, sisal have gained importance in this decade. Banana fibers are plant native to Southeast Asia, they are obtained from the steam of the banana tree which are considered as waste material after the harvest of fruit. Banana fibers as a reinforcing material have exhibited significant improvement in physical, chemical and mechanical properties of the polymer composites. The present study gives an extensive review of the banana fiber reinforced composites with its potential applications. Various aspects which affect the behavior of banana fiber reinforced polymer composites such as fiber length, its orientation and configuration, moisture content, temperature and surface treatments of fibers are discussed in this work.